JP3397161B2 - Alignment device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an aligning device, and more particularly to improving the control of loading articles into the aligning device to increase the carrying capacity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Aligning devices are for aligning, for example, one line of articles that are input from a plurality of merging ports, and are used for aligning and delivering a large number of articles at a distribution center or the like. In the conventional aligning device, a gap between articles in the aligning device main body is detected, and when the gap is equal to or larger than a predetermined value, the entry of the article from the merging port is permitted. For example, if a sensor for measuring the article length is provided at the merge port, insertion is allowed when there is a gap greater than the item length, and if the article length is not measured at the merge port, a gap slightly larger than the average item length. If there is, the input is permitted.
In any case, the gap below the predetermined value cannot be used for loading the articles, and many fine gaps remain in the alignment device body, which lowers the transportation efficiency.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A basic object of the present invention is to improve the transfer efficiency by making it possible to use even small gaps in the alignment device main body for transferring the articles (claims 1 to 3). An additional object of the invention of claim 2 is that the article sensor for detecting the arrival of the article is also used for measuring the article length, and based on this, the occupancy state of the article in the aligning device main body is more accurately grasped. The result is to further improve the transportation efficiency.
An additional problem in the invention of claim 3 is that the downstream confluence of the plurality of confluences is disadvantageously treated, and the articles from the downstream confluence are accumulated for a long time without being thrown into the alignment device body. It is to prevent being done.

[0004]

According to the present invention, in an apparatus in which articles are inserted into a main body of an aligning apparatus for aligning and transporting articles from a plurality of merging ports, a memory for storing the occupation status of the main body of the aligning apparatus. Means and an input permission means for confirming that the total gap within a predetermined range near the planned position of insertion of the article is a predetermined value or more based on the storage of the storage means, and permitting the insertion of the article. It is characterized by (claim 1). Preferably, an article sensor for detecting the arrival of the article is provided at the confluence, the article length is obtained by the article sensor, and when the article is inserted, the occupancy status of the article in the storage means according to the obtained article length To provide a means for correcting. More preferably, when the waiting time of the article at the merging port satisfies a predetermined condition, a means for stopping the input of the article from the merging port on the upstream side of the merging port is provided (claim 3).

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the occupancy of the articles in the main body of the aligning device is stored in the storage means, and there is a total gap of a predetermined value or more within a predetermined range near the planned insertion position of the articles. To see if The predetermined range here means, for example, a range in which the articles can be aligned while being pressed against each other, and specifically, a certain length satisfying this condition or the presence of two or three adjacent gaps. Range, etc. As the total gap equal to or larger than the predetermined value, the total value of the gaps existing within the predetermined range is used. If the total gap is equal to or longer than the article length or a fixed value corresponding to the article length, the entry of the article from the merging port is permitted. Therefore, even if the article cannot be put into one gap, the article can be put in using a plurality of gaps, and the transport efficiency in the alignment apparatus body is significantly improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, an article sensor is provided at the junction to detect the arrival of the article. As this sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, an ultraviolet sensor, a normal photoelectric sensor, or the like may be used as long as it can detect the presence of an article at the junction. Then, when the insertion of the article is permitted, the article length is obtained by the article sensor. Since the merging port is composed of a conveyor or the like, the article length can be obtained by detecting the time until the article sensor stops detecting the article while the conveyor is operating. Then, according to the obtained item length, the occupancy state of the aligning device main body can be accurately obtained by correcting the occupancy state of the item stored in the storage means before and after the loading of the item so as to be newly occupied by the item length. Can remember If the occupancy status of the aligning device main body is accurately stored, it is possible to allow the articles to be loaded more accurately, and as a result, the transport efficiency can be improved.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the waiting time of the article at the merging port is detected to check whether or not a predetermined condition is satisfied. When the predetermined condition is satisfied, the merging port where the article is on standby. The loading of articles from the merging port on the upstream side is stopped. As the predetermined condition, for example, a waiting time, a product of the waiting time and the number of articles waiting at the merging port, or the like is used. Further, the stop time is, for example, the time required for loading one article, or until the photoelectric sensor at the junction where the article is on standby does not detect the article for a predetermined time. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the articles from being unable to be put in from the downstream-side merging port for a long time, and the upstream-side merging port and the downstream-side merging port can be equally treated. If all of the merging ports can be handled equally, as a result, the ability to load articles into the aligning device body is increased, and a large number of articles can be prevented from accumulating at the merging ports on the downstream side.

[0008]

1 to 7 show an embodiment and its modification, and FIG. 1 shows the structure of an aligning device 2 of the embodiment. In FIG.
Reference numeral 4 denotes an aligning conveyor, which comprises a number of aligning conveyor units 6 arranged in series, and each aligning conveyor unit 6 comprises a pair of skew conveyors 8 and 10. The skew conveyors 8 and 10 are in contact with each other in the central portion, and convey the article so as to push it out obliquely toward the front center. Therefore, the articles conveyed by the skew conveyer 8 and the articles conveyed by the skew conveyer 10 are both brought closer to the central portion which is a boundary between the conveyors 8 and 10, and the articles contact each other here. While lining up in one line. And the confluence 16, 18,
20, the conveyance speed of the skew conveyor 8 on the side farther from the
The conveyance speed of the skew conveyor 10 on the side closer to 6 to 20 is set to be different from that of the skew conveyor 10, for example, slightly larger than that of the skew conveyor 10. Then, when the articles contact at the boundary between the skew conveyors 8 and 10, the article on the skew conveyor 8 side is conveyed first,
The articles on the side of the skew conveyer 10 sneak into the gap behind them, and the articles are arranged in a line and conveyed to the exit conveyor 12. Reference numeral 14 denotes a return conveyer, which is an outlet of the aligning conveyer 4 serving as a main body of the aligning device, for collecting articles that could not be aligned in one row and re-supplying them to the inlet of the aligning conveyer 4.

Although a specific aligning conveyor 4 is shown here, the present invention is not limited to this, as long as the articles can be aligned in one row or two rows. Further, in order to align the articles, the speed of the skew conveyer 8 is set to be higher than the speed of the skew conveyer 10, but the transport speed of the downstream unit of the multiple aligning conveyor units 6 is set to the upstream side. Even if the transportation speed of the unit is slightly higher, the articles can be aligned in a row. Further, the skew conveyer 8 and the skew conveyer 10 are configured such that the conveying direction is different in the angle formed with the longitudinal direction of these conveyers, and the skew conveyer 8
The angle between the conveying direction and the longitudinal direction of the conveyor may be increased by, and the angle between the conveying direction and the longitudinal direction of the conveyor may be decreased by the oblique conveyor 10. In this way, the force of pushing the article to the boundary between the conveyors 8 and 10 by the skew conveyor 8 becomes large, and the force of pushing the article to the boundary at the skew conveyor 10 becomes small. As a result, the articles conveyed from the skew conveyer 8 can be prioritized, and the articles from the skew conveyer 10 can be aligned in the gap therebetween.

The aligning conveyor 4 includes a plurality of loading conveyors 1.
6, 18 and 20 are connected, and 21 is each feeding conveyor 16-
It is a junction from 20 to the alignment conveyor 4. Then, the articles 22 are conveyed to the input conveyors 16 to 20 by a stacker crane or a forklift of an automated warehouse, enter the alignment conveyor 4 through the confluence 21, send out the ones aligned in a row from the exit conveyor 12, The articles that could not be aligned are returned to the uppermost stream of the alignment conveyor 4 by the reflux conveyor 14. The reflux conveyor 14 may not be provided.

The confluence 21, that is, the feeding conveyors 16 to 20
Photoelectric sensors P1 to Pn are provided in a predetermined range from the alignment conveyor 4 at the tip end of the same, and similarly, photoelectric sensors Px to Pz are also provided on the exit conveyor 12 and the reflux conveyor 14 for monitoring the articles. An infrared sensor, an ultraviolet sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, or the like may be used instead of the photoelectric sensor.
A device that detects that light or ultrasonic waves are blocked and does not reach the receiving side is used. In the embodiment, the photoelectric sensors P1 to Pn are installed near the tip of the merging port 21, and when the photoelectric sensor P1 to Pn detects the article 22, the conveyor is stopped at the merging port 21 to stop the article on the spot. Let Then, when the permission to put in the aligning conveyor 4 is obtained, the conveyor is operated to put the article 22 into the aligning conveyor 4. After the operation of the conveyor starts, the photoelectric sensor P
The time from 1 to Pn until the article 22 is no longer detected corresponds to the length of the article 22, and the length of the article 22 is obtained from this time. In FIG. 1, the mounting positions of the photoelectric sensors P1 to Pn are changed to a position slightly upstream of the merging port 21, and the conveyor is stopped after the article 22 has passed through the photoelectric sensors P1 to Pn to wait for the input permission. You can Even in such a case, it is included in the concept that the photoelectric sensors P1 to Pn are provided at the merging port 21, but it is difficult to align the leading end of the article 22 immediately upstream of the aligning conveyor 4 and stop it, and the article loading position. The accuracy of is reduced.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the controller of the aligning apparatus.
A signal receiving unit 24 receives signals from the photoelectric sensors P1 to Pz, and a loading permission unit 26 permits loading of the articles to the aligning conveyor 4 to the merging port 21 where the articles are waiting. Based on this, the conveyor of the junction 21 operates,
The corresponding photoelectric sensor measures the article length and sends the article to the aligning device 4. Reference numeral 28 denotes a conveyor data storage unit that stores the occupancy state of the articles on the alignment conveyor 4, and reference numeral 30 denotes a loading request storage unit that receives the article presence signal for each of the merging ports at the signal receiving unit 24, 21
It is stored as an item input request for each item. Note that the input request is
It is deleted when the input permitting unit 26 permits the input of the article.

FIG. 3 shows the conveyor data stored in the conveyor data storage unit 28, and the alignment conveyor 4 is in the range from the origin of the alignment conveyor on the most upstream side to the exit to the exit conveyor 12, for example, every predetermined length. It is classified and stored with the presence or absence of the article as 0 or 1 for each part. 0 indicates that there is no article and it is empty,
1 indicates that the article is present and occupied. Then, the conveyor data is generated as data 0 at the origin of the aligning conveyor, moves from the upstream side to the downstream side in FIG. 1 in synchronization with the operation of the aligning conveyor 4, and is deleted at the exit. The conveyor data may be any data as long as the occupancy status of the articles on the alignment conveyor 4 is stored, and the data form is arbitrary, as shown in FIG.
The position and the length of each article may be stored in place of the data of 1.

4 to 6 show the meaning of the total gap within a predetermined range, and FIG. 4 shows the total gap within a range of a length (constant length) of, for example, several times the average article length. Shows what is asked for. In the case of FIG. 4, for example, when an article having an article length corresponding to a 2-bit length (two units of a gap) is loaded, the data of the 2-bit gap is changed to 1 (occupied) at the loading point and its upstream side.

FIG. 5 shows a method for obtaining the total length of two or three adjacent gaps. In the case of FIG.
Since the total gap of two adjacent gaps is obtained, the gap at the right end of FIG. 5 is not considered as the total gap. In the case of this example, for example, an article having a length of 3 bits is loaded, and therefore the data of the gap for 3 bits is changed to 1 after the loading.

What is important in FIGS. 4 and 5 is whether or not the total gap is long enough to accommodate the articles to be loaded. With such a length, even if these gaps are separated, the articles are aligned in one row by the alignment action of the articles in the alignment conveyor 4, so that the articles can be loaded. For this reason, it is possible to use small gaps that could not be used in the past and improve the transport efficiency.

In the case of FIGS. 4 and 5, all the gaps within the predetermined range are treated equally, and the gaps outside the predetermined range are completely ignored. However, in the boundary portion inside and outside the predetermined range, for example, the addition rate of the gap may be 50%. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the weighting factor of the gap is considered and the weight is set to 0 (outside the range), 0.5 (boundary of the range), and 1 (inside the range).

FIG. 7 shows an operation algorithm of the embodiment.
When the article 22 is loaded into the loading conveyors 16 to 20 and conveyed to the merging port 21, it is detected by the photoelectric sensors P1 to Pn and stops there. On the other hand, the conveyor data shown in FIG. 3 is generated as 0 at the origin of the alignment conveyor, and moves toward the exit side at the same rate as the conveyor 4. When an article is present at the merging port 21, the signal receiving unit 24 receives signals from the photoelectric sensors P1 to P3, and the loading permission unit 26.
Through, the loading request storage unit 30 stores the number of the merging port where the loading request exists.

The loading permission unit 26 finds the total length of the gaps within a predetermined range upstream from the planned loading position when loading the article from the corresponding merge port 21. If the total length is equal to or larger than the predetermined value, the input permission is given to the corresponding merging port 21, the conveyor operates, and the articles are sent to the alignment conveyor 4. At this time, the length of the article is obtained from the time until the article finishes passing using the photoelectric sensor, and the conveyor data corresponding to the article length is changed to the article present.

The loading request storage unit 30 stores the time after the article 22 reaches the position of the photoelectric sensor. When this time exceeds a predetermined value, it is considered that there is an article to be preferentially loaded, and the loading of the article is stopped for a predetermined time at the merging port on the upstream side. Here, the predetermined time is, for example, a fixed time required for loading one article. Alternatively, considering that there is a high possibility that a large number of articles are accumulated in the corresponding merged port 21, the photoelectric sensor at the merged port may be set as the time until the article does not continue to be detected for a predetermined time. . This corresponds to prohibiting the input of articles on the upstream side until the articles accumulated in the merging port 21 are completely cleaned. And if you do this,
All the input conveyors 16 to 20 can be treated fairly, and articles do not accumulate on the downstream conveyors.
Further, if all the conveyors are handled equally, as a result, the loading ability of the articles to the aligning conveyor 4 increases and the transport efficiency also increases.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the entire structure of an alignment device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a loading control unit for the alignment device in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of conveyor data according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a characteristic diagram showing calculation of a gap in the example.

FIG. 5 is a characteristic diagram showing calculation of a gap in a modified example.

FIG. 6 is a characteristic diagram showing calculation of a gap in another modification.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a control algorithm of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Alignment device 4 Aligning conveyor 6 Alignment conveyor unit 8,10 skew conveyor 12 Exit conveyor 14 Return conveyor 16, 18, 20 Input conveyor 21 Confluence 22 articles 24 Signal reception section 26 Input permission section 28 Conveyor data storage 30 Input request storage unit P1 to Pz photoelectric sensor

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-61-1134 (JP, A) JP-A-2-291312 (JP, A) JP-A-7-157063 (JP, A) JP-A-59-92825 (JP , A) JP-A-5-132133 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65G 43/08 B65G 47/68-47/72

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing an occupation state of an article in an alignment apparatus body in an apparatus configured to load articles from a plurality of merging ports into an alignment apparatus body for aligning and conveying articles. Based on the storage of the storage means, it is confirmed that the total clearance within the predetermined range near the planned position of insertion of the article is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and an insertion permission means for permitting the insertion of the article is provided. And the alignment device. 2. An article sensor for detecting the arrival of an article is provided at a merging port, and the article length is obtained by the article sensor.
2. The aligning device according to claim 1, further comprising means for correcting the occupation status of the article in the storage means according to the obtained article length when the article is loaded. 3. A means for stopping the loading of articles from the merging port on the upstream side of the merging port when the waiting time of the article at the merging port satisfies a predetermined condition. The aligning device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: